Radio

Reasons to Not Be Ugly: A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast

Our latest podcast is called “Reasons to Not Be Ugly.” (You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. You can alsoread the transcript, which includes credits for the music you’ll hear in the episode.)

This episode takes a look at the “beauty premium” and, conversely, the downside of ugly. Do cuter babies get more attention? Are good-looking students graded more charitably? How do ugly people fare in the marriage and labor markets?

NZ

What's the hidden side to this particular topic? Seems like an exercise in stating the painfully obvious.

Freakonomics is at its best when revealing something surprising and counter-intuitive but retrospectively impossible to deny. I think a lot of stuff in the books qualifies as this kind of material.

Maybe with the blog and podcast are where they put their throwaway material, since they're giving it away for free. Hey Freakonomics writers, you guys should do a post about that.

Shane L

January 30, 2014 @ 2:37pm

I, on the other hand, find it most unlikely and interesting. (Or would, if I hadn't come across it from Freakonomics or other popular social sciences books and blogs before.)

Consider the great movements demanding the equal treatment of women, of ethnic and religious groups, of gays and transgendered people: yet discrimination against ugly people exists right under our noses and nobody seems much troubled by it. Will there be an Ugly Rights campaign one day?

Back to the article: could boxers or martial artists also benefit from ugliness for the same reason that robbers do? How about soldiers or riot police?

Alex

January 30, 2014 @ 3:00pm

I dunno. How many people would be willing to sign up for something requiring them to publicly admit to being unattractive?

memory lost?

January 30, 2014 @ 3:35pm

U ForgotTo ContrOl For Sex M/f.

Patrick

January 30, 2014 @ 4:46pm

Any program that considers Peyton Manning better looking than Jay Cutler should probably be recoded. Not that some might find Peyton better looking, but still.

mind over matter

January 30, 2014 @ 4:47pm

Would that picture of Einstein sticking out his' tongue sold so much if it were not `EINSTEIN'. I mean really, he was not a handsome man but was perceived as one with all the hullabaloo associated with him.

Armando

January 30, 2014 @ 5:21pm

How true is it that the individuals with highest scores on this symmetry scale are actually considered more attractive by other individuals?

I have a hard time relying on just a symmetry score as a proxy for beauty. I'm sure there is some correlation there, but there's a lot more to having a "beautiful" face than just it's symmetry. Weight, complexion, eye color, hair, etc.. as far as I can tell those don't affect the symmetry, but can affect what one perceives as beautiful.

NZ

January 30, 2014 @ 6:44pm

Proportionality is probably the best single trait to measure. It encompasses symmetry, too, which is elegant. Proportionality maps closely to hormone levels. Attraction is caused by the perception of close proximity to an ideal balance of the opposite sex's hormone levels.

So all else being equal, a woman with a strong dominant jawline, even if it's symmetrical, will be less attractive to most men than a woman with a fine, delicate jawline, since the latter is indicative of a prototypical female hormone balance.

Traits that can be graded along a spectrum, like proportionality, seem more valid as measures of beauty than traits that are "multiple choice" like eye color: picture the face of an attractive woman, airbrushed to show green eyes in one photo and blue eyes in another. You might have a preference for green eyes, but are you really going to say the blue eyed version is ugly?

Then there are things like hair style which come with the label "subject to change" anyway. "She's hot but what's up with her hairstyle? Well, she can change it so who cares."

Men tend to prefer long, full, natural-looking hairstyles on women (these are signs of fertility), but there are a lot of hairstyles which fit that criteria. Again, one may have a preference for a certain type of hairstyle, but if all versions of the attractive woman's picture come with long, full, natural-looking hair, I find it implausible that a guy would say the off-preference ones are ugly.

Pigmentation is another "multiple-choice" trait that isn't very useful as a measure. Skin color changes with the seasons, within a range based on a person's family background and lifestyle, so it's kinda halfway between hairstyle and eye color in that respect. While most people have their preferences, even guys who aren't generally attracted to black girls, for example, will usually acknowledge that Beyonce is hot. Proportionality uber alles.

Read more...

James

January 30, 2014 @ 6:20pm

Something that puzzles me here. Why does it appear that you are measuring beauty only by the face? It may be crude, but there's a good bit of truth in what I've heard from many a guy discussing the attractiveness of women: "Who looks at their *@#! face?" Or the converse "But she has such a pretty face" said in a pitying tone of the fat girl.

Certainly this fits with my own perceptions. Place an attractive face atop an overweight or anorexic-thing & flabby body, and it's merely a curiousity. An average or less face on a seriously fit & trim body, though, makes an attractive package.

The good part of this, though, is that there is a large element of choice. I may not be able to do anything about my face (other than growing a beard), but I can decide whether to have six-pack abs or a beer gut.

Aviva

January 30, 2014 @ 7:04pm

Can you post a link to the website where you can post photos and get them evaluated according to the symmetry?

Bourree Lam

January 30, 2014 @ 7:58pm

http://www.symmeter.com/

Mel

January 30, 2014 @ 7:44pm

Where can I upload my picture to see where I score on the beauty / ugly scale?

Bourree Lam

January 30, 2014 @ 7:58pm

http://www.symmeter.com/

Cath

January 30, 2014 @ 8:32pm

Nancy Etcoff's book "Survival of the Prettiest" gave excellent explanations, including from evolutionary sources. Maybe this explains why getting plastic surgery is shown to be the only "purchase" where there is no decrease in happiness afterwards (as opposed to buying a car, where the purchaser adjusts).

Mary Horvath

January 31, 2014 @ 12:46am

Interesting that I have listened to all the radio personalities they had at the end for many years and never was curious about what they looked like. I of course googled them all while listening to the podcast said about one after the other, she's cute, he's cute.

the white

January 31, 2014 @ 1:07am

Hey Alex, you asked “how many people would sign up for something publicly admitting that they are ugly?” well... Count the users on Facebook, share the numbers when you are done.